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THE NEW YORKER, DECEMBER 8, 2014
scrap? I'm smoking rappers, you are a
L---what's good, Smack?" Pusha T is the
well-known rapper who has worked with
Kanye West, while Smack White is an
underground battle rapper.
"Crushed Egos" begins with a sample
of a man saying, "You practiced twenty
years? You must be extremely good,
then." And he is: Raekwon enters with a
verse that sticks to his tradition of fold-
ing together phonemes and slang that
sound better for lining up askew. He raps,
"Restaurants with skeleton keys is big
business. Well groomed and elegant,
posture's real dapper. Status is gigantic,
coats is alpaca." The verse reminds us
that the solo albums of many of Wu-
Tang's members are stronger than some
of the group e orts. Raekwon's "Only
Built 4 Cuban Linx . . ." (1995) is possi-
bly the most complex of all the Wu al-
bums. GZA's "Liquid Swords" (1995) is
the most coherent and fluid. Ghostface
Killah's "Supreme Clientele" (2000) is
the most fun and unhinged.
And then there's the work of the m.c.
whom Raekwon shouts out as Ason
Unique, one of the names used by Ol'
Dirty Bastard, the band's only casualty---
he died in 2004. The rapper struggled
with many antagonists, including the po-
lice, drugs, and himself. A new book
called "The Dirty Version," written by
his constant companion, Buddha Monk,
describes the continual state of tumult
the rapper lived in, doling out money to
friends and lovers and relatives, going
AWO L for recording sessions, and gen-
erally not accepting that he was possi-
bly the best-known Wu-Tang member.
There have been few unexpected appear-
ances as lovely as Dirty's verse on Mariah
Carey's "Fantasy," which created a bridge
between unchecked lunacy and show-
room optimism that nobody has been
able to cross since.
There is none of Dirty's mania or gur-
gling on "A Better Tomorrow," which is a
bit defanged. That makes it a perfect
primer; there are dozens of albums fea-
turing this producer and these rappers,
perhaps the richest catalogue of any sin-
gle group in rap.The collective is respon-
sible for more than forty albums, prob-
ably half of which are worth owning.
That's a pretty good average for a deeply
disorganized bunch of people. If "A Bet-
ter Tomorrow" does anything for you,
go straight to yesterday.
PROMOTION
ELEMENTS
No one joins Facebook to be sad and lonely.
But a new study from the University of Michigan
psychologist Ethan Kross argues that that's
exactly how it makes us feel."
---"How Facebook Makes Us Unhappy," Maria Konnikova
www.newyorker.com/tech/elements
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